


Seeing your husband again

by Rehe_im_Walde



Series: Guitar husbands summertour 2019 [2]
Category: Rammstein
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Friendship, Guitars, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-11-25 22:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20919377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehe_im_Walde/pseuds/Rehe_im_Walde
Summary: After the Rammstein summertour of 2019 guitar husbands Paul and Richard had gone their separate ways, expecting not to see eachother again until rehearsels for the 2020 tour start.But Paul's birthday brings them both together before that..This fiction is more or less a continuation of this storyhttps://archiveofourown.org/works/20493929/chapters/48633563although it can be read separately as well.





	1. The gift

**Author's Note:**

> The characters are, ofcourse, their own and not mine. All thoughts and conversations are fictional.

(December 9th , 2019)

"...18, 19, 20.. okay, that should be enough chairs for the whole family. If there are any more people in this family in the future, we will have to move, our house won't be big enough anymore for your birthday dinners"  
Paul and his wife were rearranging furniture in their living room to make room for all the relatives they had invited to Paul's birthdayparty tonight.

Paul grinned, he loved socializing and was looking forward to seeing all his Berliner relatives again now he had returned from his after-tour-holiday-trip.  
'Trip' might be an understatement; these past months he had travelled to various places around the world to meet up with old friends (and as he made friends easily, extraverted as he was, he had many in all corners of the earth). Mostly travelling with his wife, sometimes also joined by the children, Paul had enjoyed his trips a great deal, but was now happy to be home again.

Of his bandmembers he had seen little to nothing, each busy with their own endeavours. As far as Paul knew Flake was on a tour to promote his most recent book, Till had been busy with his other band 'Lindemann' (the band had been publishing a new album, undertaking a tour and making videos; all in the short time after Rammstein's tour), Oli and Schneider had been spending time with their respective families. Richard, who had married at the end of the stadiumtour to his girlfriend (somewhat to the surprise of his bandmates, but having experienced their leadguitarist's spur-of-the-moment decisions for years, they were more amused than shocked), had also been travelling off and on on a combination honeymoon/meeting-relatives kind of holiday.  
They had only exchanged some messages via the band-App, mainly when to start preparing for next tour, due to various schedules the rehearsals wouldn't start until early 2020.

So all in all, Paul had been blissfully relaxing and enjoying himself and hadn't thought about Rammstein all that much. The hugs and kisses during the tour with his 'guitar husband' had become a happy memory. Paul figured Richard had his mind on other matters since his wedding anyway (at which Paul had been perhaps a tiny bit more shocked than the other bandmates, but noone would have noticed, he had been just as happy for the newlyweds as the others). And with every week that passed, the memory had become more distant..

"Paul, is that what you're wearing tonight? Oh, never mind, there are the first guests already.."

\-----

A few 100 meters away Richard crossed the street to enter the neighbourhood where Paul lived, in his hand a small giftwrapped package.  
Normally it wasn't custom within Rammstein to give eachother birthday gifts. They had known eachother for such a long time that every somewhat fun gift had already been given, expensive gifts would only burden the receiver with having to come up with something equal in return and just exchanging a giftcertificate each time had always seemed beyond ridiculous; so at most a 'birthday-boy' would be treated to a round of champagne and/or beer, depending on his prefered beverage.

But while travelling with his girlfriend (no..wife..Richard had to admit that he had surprised even himself when he had asked his girlfriend to marry him and after these few months still had to get used to the idea), he had been visiting some of his favorite shops and found a gift that had instantly made him think of Paul (and of their summer together..) and without hesitation bought a special customized version.

And so here he was on his way to Paul's house to see if the other guitarist was home. He could ofcourse have called first, but had been on his own all week, his girlfriend (no..wife!) away on a businesstrip, so he figured he'd take the chance.  
As he walked up to Paul's house a couple of cars stopped to park in front of it, he realised Paul was having a birthday party. Stopping in front of Paul's house Richard was tempted to just turn around and walk away again, but Paul's son called out to him, ofcourse recognizing his father's bandmate  
"Hey Richard, are you coming too?"  
so walking away unnoticed was out of the question. As he hesitated the frontdoor opened to let the guests in. It was the birthday-boy himself who opened the door...

Both guitarists stared at eachother for a moment, Paul surprised, Richard uncomfortable because of the other guests passing him.  
"You're having a party, I shouldn't have come.."  
"That's okay, the more the merrier, are you coming in?"  
"No, I eh... I just got you a little something...for your birthday..." Richard handed Paul the package and immediately backed away again  
"I should go.."

Paul was even more surprised now at receiving a birthday gift, especially because it seemed nothing like the usual alcoholic content. The package was soft, he squeezed it and quipped  
"Did you get me socks? Electric-blue I hope, you know that's my favorite color".  
More guests arrived and walked past Richard to enter the house and congratulate Paul who was still standing in the doorway.  
After they had entered Paul turned back to the driveway to talk to Richard, but the other guitarist had taken the opportunity to leave and Paul didn't see him on the street anymore.  
Still surprised by the spontaneous showing up of his bandmate, with a gift no less, Paul went back into the house.

He wondered what the package contained, would be a joke if it really were socks, but noticed an elderly relative had trouble undoing their coat, so he casually lay the gift on a sidetable and went to help, after which he joined his family in the livingroom.  
For the moment the package remained forgotten in the hallway.

\-----

Richard quickly walked away. The gift had seemed a good idea in the store, when he wrapped it, as he went to drop it off, right up until the moment Paul opened the door, but now Richard had second thoughts. For a while he considered getting it back and hope Paul would forget about it, but quickly dismissed the idea; that would draw even more attention to the gift which seemed to Richard to get sillier by the minute.  
After overthinking some more Richard had convinced himself that Paul would think it was stupid and ridicule him for it. He sighed, what was done was done, next year back to the safe gift of a round of beer.

\-----

Later that night Paul's dinnerparty had ended with everyone having a great time, lots of laughter, great food and now Paul and his wife had finished washing up.  
"I'm off to bed, are you coming too Paul?"  
"You go, I'll be there in a minute.."

As his wife retreated Paul went to the hallway to get the package, that hadn't been far from his mind all evening. He had been caught off-guard at seeing Richard again and was still surprised to get a gift from his colleague. Now he was curious to find out what was in it, but for some reason (that he couldn't really explain) had wanted to be alone when he unwrapped it.

He squeezed it again, still soft, and turned it over to loosen the adhesive tape (why he didn't just tear the paper off as usual he didn't know) and unfolded the wrappingpaper. Inside it were two supple leather bands that Paul recognized immediately: guitarist's arm sleeves, exactly the type that he liked to wear and in his favorite color Burgundy-red. Paul smiled, noone but a guitarist would have thought of giving something like this or if they thought of it, wouldn't know the specifics he liked. 

Had Richard known that his had been worn out after the tour, or was this just a coincidence? Paul hadn't thought the other guitarist was that interested in his gear; although both were guitarists in the same band, they had very different tastes and habits with regards to their equipment.  
He was surprised Richard even knew which ones to pick, he himself wore very different ones.

Paul brought one sleeve to his face and smelt it, lovely and leathery with a hint of Richard's cologne (or was he only imagining that last bit) and unfolded one to try it on. Then he noticed the inside of the sleeve had two imprints in the soft leather: the Rammstein R+ logo and an image of Paul's necktattoo.  
Paul smiled to himself, of all his tattoos he knew that that one was Richard's favorite. When at the end of the summertour they had some private cuddles together, Richard had in particular loved to kiss his neck in that spot.

So these weren't even standard sleeves, Richard had had them customized. Paul was amazed at the amount of thought that had gone into the gift.  
As he tried on the sleeves his mind went back to the tour and how much fun it had been, both on stage and off. He hadn't played much these last months, but now he was looking forward to starting again, to get back on stage or rehearse, for the first time a bit disappointed that Rammstein would only start up again in the new year.

He took his phone, but as it was late he figured Richard would be asleep by now, so he sent him a message:  
"Love the 'socks', want to try them out?"  
Thinking he wouldn't hear back soon he was surprised to get a message back almost immediately  
"Would love to see you, clubhouse in the morning?"  
Paul grinned but didn't have to think long what to answer  
"You're on, I'll see you when I get there.." 

He got up to get his favorite black Les Paul guitar and pack it in it's case. Still smiling he put the new sleeves next to it, so he wouldn't forget them. 

Looking forward to the next day, he made his way upstairs to go to sleep.


	2. Playing together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After not having seen eachother since the stadium tour, Paul and Richard have agreed to meet in their clubhouse..

The 'clubhouse' was the band's joint rehearsel studio/hangout building. Apart from space for musical equipment it had several couches (because many Rammstein rehearsals were spent talking and hanging out more than actually playing) and a small kitchen-area with it's most important asset: a fridge (primarily used for cooling various drinks).  
All Rammstein members had the key and securitycode and were free to use it as they pleased, but in reality most had a homestudio as well and only used the collective studio when they were together.

As Paul entered the door he could hear Richard playing. He didn't recognize the song, but wasn't surprised: Richard had an unstoppable drive to come up with new music and still felt he had to 'create' to be useful in life. This compulsion had it's benefits when Rammstein wanted to record a new album, but had also led to numerous fights in the past, because Richard usually got very protective of his creations and had a hard time accepting the others making adjustments. Unfortunately for him, that was exactly how the Rammstein collective worked: they would start off from an idea and while playing made loads of changes, just as long until everybody was happy with it.  
By that time often not much was left of the original idea, and when the original had been Richard's, he more often than not felt the others had ravished his 'babies'. This in fact had years ago driven him to start a second band 'Emigrate' to have another outlet for his music that didn't fit the Rammstein-mold.

Paul quietly made his way to the couches, Richard was sitting with his back to him and hadn't noticed him come in, still focused on the new song.  
Now he saw Richard playing concentrated, looking smart in all-black, buttondown-shirt and pants, he was happy they were seeing eachother today.  
His initial reaction was to go over to the other man and give him a big hug and kiss, but not knowing whether the other man's feelings had changed since the tour, Paul hesitated and decided for his tried-and-tested approach of teasing him.

"Hey, that's a new one, I thought you were done with ever making something new for Rammstein again?" (After each album Richard would be exhausted by all the adjustments the others made, and would dramatically announce that that had been the last Rammstein album ever. Because he had been doing that for as long as they remembered and with every single album since the first one, the others relentlessly teased him with it.)  
Richard jumped, he only now noticed Paul standing behind him.

Paul laughed, took off his coat and unpacked his guitar "Sooo...let's hear it...or are you writing for Emigrate again...are you afraid of us improving your song?"  
Richard looked at the other guitarist, inwardly happy to see him again after several months (not counting last night on Paul's doorstep, because he still wasn't sure about the gift), but discussing his 'babies' with a Rammstein colleague was always a touchy matter for him  
"At least the guys at 'Emigrate' don't butcher my songs the way you lot do..."  
"We don't butcher them, we upgrade them" Paul grinned that the familiar discussion had broken the ice between the two, which was exactly what he intended.  
"Oh please, I should be glad when there's one riff left of my idea by the time you guys are done with it"  
"Well, there are some that remained almost the way you had them... 'Deutschland' is probably 90% the same as when you first played it for us, 'Du hast' is practically completely your original, 'Mutter'..."  
"Don't get me started on 'Mutter'..." Richard snapped, looking up at Paul and from the mischievous grin on the other man's face, knew that he had walked into his trap. The 'Mutter' song was one of the most famous the band had ever made, but had also led to numerous fights over all facets of it, and the band had once almost broken up because of it.  
Ever since that time the song was regarded as 'the song-that-shall-not-be-named' to avoid stirring up arguments again.

"You're teasing me..." he pouted a little, but was also glad of the familiar banter with his colleague; Paul at least wasn't offended by the gift.  
Paul smiled while he sat down on another couch opposite Richard "Yeah well, I couldn't resist, I wouldn't want you to think I've gone all soppy on you... " he put on his new guitarsleeves and held his arms out to his colleague "Look..."  
"Do you really like them?"  
"Are you kidding me? I love them, they are way better than my old ones."  
"I noticed you had worn out your old ones over the tour"  
"You did? So you're not such a self-centered diva as some of our fans seem to think" Paul grinned.  
Richard shyly smiled before turning his attention to his guitar again "Not with people I care about...I thought you knew that"  
Paul was inwardly moved that Richard indeed *had* noticed, for a few seconds he watched his bandmate strumming his guitar before getting up and walking the few steps to Richard to give him a small kiss on the cheek "Thank you for the gift, I really love them, even more so because they're from you" another kiss on Richard's cheek, with his hand softly stroking the other's shoulder "Play your song for me, I want to hear it as it is, I promise not to mess with it"  
He went back to sit on the other couch and took his guitar.

Richard felt relieved, Paul did like the gift...he smiled at the other man and started to play the song again. After a few minutes Paul was joining in playing rhythm to Richard's lead; any hesitance that Richard had felt was now gone completely, Paul's play was exactly what he had imagined it to be in his head.  
He followed the first song with another idea, even more incomplete (to a level he would never have played it for a Rammstein member in the past) but Paul kept his word and played along the way Richard had intended it.

After a while they stopped, needing a break, this time it was Richard who gave the other a peck on the cheek "Thanks, that was great, we should play together more often, just the two of us.."  
"Shall I get us some coffee? I'm really enjoying playing with you too.."  
"How long can you stay, can we play some more this afternoon?"  
"I can stay as long as you want me.." Paul smiled a bit cheekily.  
Richard laughed "Good, you're on; you get coffee, I'll go get some rolls from the bakery on the corner.."

\-----

That afternoon the 'Guitar husbands' truely upheld the 'Guitar' part of their relationship. After going through several of Richard's new ideas, they followed it with Rammstein songs from the last tour and latest album, alternated with fits of laughter over funny stories of past videoshoots.

After another round of coffee they started to give eachother requests of particular solos from the past, eventually going through various obscure songs they hadn't played in years just to see if the other remembered.

When night fell Paul was getting tired of playing, not having played for a while took it's toll, but was content at listening to Richard playing for him.  
As he noticed the other man putting his guitar to the side and slumping down on his couch, Richard switched to an acoustic guitar "Do you have a request 'ballad' you want me to play?"  
"I like it when you play for me, but we don't have many ballads on our repertoire."  
"And when we do, they don't even allow us to play them, they have Oli do it" Richard agreed.  
"That's because when we play them, we used to get in an argument which of us could play, and if we both did, we always turned them into an 'evil guitars' song and play the 'ballad' part right out of it" Paul laughed "Could you play me 'While my guitar gently weeps' I always liked that one".

Richard smiled "I could easily see that one getting 'evil' with us" then started to play and sing the Beatles song for his friend. Paul was moved, it was such a lovely song, here in Rammstein's practice room that was used to much heavier music. 

He looked at Richard while he played, guitar on his knee, fingers nimbly moving on the strings and enjoyed being there, together with his 'husband'.  
When the song finished he thought of another and Richard was happy to keep playing for him.

"If the other guys knew we were playing ballads, they probably wouldn't believe it" he laughed when Richard finished another song and took a small break.  
"To be honest, I think they would be more shocked about us playing ballads then they would be at us having sex" Richard casually answered, but not without a cheeky grin at Paul.  
Paul smiled, still a bit tired, but comfortable on the couch.

Richard loosened the buttons on his shirt-cuffs and the top button of his shirt.  
Paul watched him and laughed "I just remembered our mock-fight at the 'Haifisch' video, you know, the one where we ended up wrestling on the floor".  
Richard laughed too, hand still on his shirtbutton "That was a fun shoot, and a fun fight, it was over much too soon, I would have wrestled you a whole lot longer if I had had my way".  
"I always regretted that I wasn't allowed to rip your shirt, I would have loved to see all the buttons flying open" Paul grinned "You always look rippable in a shirt".  
Richard lowered his hand and smiled at Paul "It would be nice if you didn't actually rip it open, it's a new shirt, but other than that..." 

For a minute both guitarists remained quiet, smiling at eachother.  
Then Paul got up from his couch "Play 'Angie' for me".  
"Isn't that a bit cheesy" Richard laughed but started to play.  
Paul moved to Richard's couch and sat down behind the other man, on his knees, so he was seated a little higher than the other guitarist. He softly stroked Richard's back and neck, knowing that his friend was very sensitive there, then reached two hands over Richard's shoulders to the row of buttons on his shirt.  
Very slowly and gently he started to undo the second button, then the third.  
He whispered "Keep playing honey" in Richard's ear, when the other man had stopped through Paul's touch, breathing a bit heavier than before.  
He undid another two buttons and then moved one hand inside of Richard's shirt to caress his chest. He used his other hand to stroke Richard's stomach over the shirt, his face now next to his, his lips leaving small kisses on the other man's shoulder and neck.  
Richard had wanted to keep playing as Paul had asked, but by now was too distracted by the other man's presence, he let his hands rest on his guitar, tilted his head a bit to the side to give Paul more space for kissing. After a few silent minutes, the only sound being Paul's kisses on his bare skin, he whispered "I missed you Paul, I fucking missed you".  
Paul smiled against Richard's shoulder "I've missed you too, mein Schatz".

After a while Paul undid another button, Richard leaning against him enjoying his touch. Paul continued his caresses but couldn't reach the other buttons. He got up from behind Richard (causing a small moan in protest from the other guitarist) and kneeled down in front of him. Richard put his guitar, that he had still been holding up until that moment, to the side and wrapped his arms around Paul in a warm hug, his lips seeking Paul's to start a kiss, at first chaste, but as Paul continued undoing buttons the kiss became more passionate.  
Richard's hands were now joining in the touching, first over Paul's shirt, then sliding under it to touch the skin on his back, his sides, his stomach.  
As both men moaned into their kiss, they moved to lay down on the couch, which was a bit small for two grown men, but at this moment, that turned out to be an advantage; their bodies close together, just enough space for more stroking and caressing.

After a while they stopped for a short break and looked at eachother, before both simultaneously saying "How far do you..." both laughed, knowing they wanted to know the same thing.  
Richard stroked Paul's cheek, his other hand on Paul's back "I would like to be with you more often like this".  
"So do I, I don't want this to be the last time."

"Then we don't have to rush anything, it's been a while since I've been with a guy."  
Paul chuckled "I've never been with a guy, not like this anyway, I never thought I would" and after a few seconds added "and then there was you..."  
"I never thought I would be again either, my last time ended badly, I was sure I was done with men..." after a while smiling "and then there was you".

Both smiled and embraced, laying with their foreheads against eachother in that old familiar way, enjoying the silence of the practice room.  
Paul laughed "If our 'Paulchard' fans knew this, they would faint. Maybe we should put a joint post on our Instagrams 'Guitar husbands practice' with a selfie or something."  
"What, like this, with our shirts off, in eachother's arms? Not that I would mind, but I don't think we'd ever hear the end of it from the other guys and our management. But I'd like to post something together..."  
"How about we take a pictures of our guitars together to tease the fans; it's vague enough for interpretation and the 'Paulchard' fans will fill in the blanks themselves."

They remained cuddling for a while before getting up to indeed take the picture: Richard's 'ESP burnt' guitar and Paul's black 'Les Paul' next to eachother, the necks close together. Paul had draped one of his new guitarsleeves around the neck of his guitar.  
Both started an Instagram post with the text "'Guitar husbands' practice for stadiumtour 2020" (Paul in german, Richard in english) and pressed 'Post' at the same time before turning their phones to 'mute'.

It took only seconds for the first likes and comments to appear ("Paulchard is still alive!"), after a couple of minutes even Schneider (who was by far the most social media savvy of Rammstein) commented, obviously recognizing the background of the photo "If you're practising what I think you're practising, I don't want to know, just make sure you clean up the clubhouse afterwards", which apart from earning him another bunch of likes from fans, also stoked the imagination of the fans, who were posting all kinds of speculations, dismissed by others as fiction, but many speculations were much closer to reality than any of them could have foreseen.

The two guitarists didn't notice. They had gone back to lay on the couch and where now passionately kissing, touching and enjoying eachother's bodies and presence, undisturbed by the social media frenzy they had just created.


End file.
